Washington: Hillary Clinton, prospective candidate of Democratic Party for US Presidential elections of 2016, is once again in the midst of a controversy for accepting money from Russian donors who allegedly wanted to buy influence in US government.
Hillary and Bill Clinton are not new to controversy but the recent one could very well cost Lady Clinton a presidential election. New York Times on Thursday published a story virtually validating accusations made in a forthcoming book called ‘Clinton Cash' by a Conservative activist that foreign donors and Russians in particular, funnelled money into the Clinton Foundation in an effort to buy influence in a potential Hillary Clinton Presidency.
According to NY Times, Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013 and meanwhile a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One's chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totalling $2.35 million. Shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Bill Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.
Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Hillary had struck with the Obama government to publicly identify all donors.
The charges are being vigorously contested by the Clinton campaign, which sees it as part of a right-wing conspiracy that the former First Lady has spoken of in the past. No one "has ever produced a shred of evidence supporting the theory that Hillary Clinton ever took action as secretary of state to support the interests of donors to the Clinton Foundation," her campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement, maintaining that multiple US agencies, as well as the Canadian government, had signed off on the Uranium One deal and that, in general, such matters were handled at a level below the secretary.
Meanwhile, increasing much trouble for the former Secretary of State, the House Committee investigating Benghazi is asking Hillary Clinton to appear for two public hearings on the 2012 terrorist attacks and her email use, according to a letter sent to her lawyer on Thursday.
